|
|
 |
Become a Home Based Travel Agent
Do you BUMP?
By Joanie Ogg CTC, MCC
I admit it; I am a MAC Groupie. I
moved over from Microsoft about a year ago and I will never look
back. If you are not a MAC Groupie and you are about to tune me
out because you are a Microsoft Fan, don’t give up on this
article yet. It is really pretty funny.
Now, that you know I have a MAC,
you won’t be surprised that I also have the infamous iPhone. I
am addicted and love it. What I like so much about being a MAC
Convert is that everything Syncs and I am more connected then
ever before. Perhaps that is a good and a bad thing. My husband,
Tom, would say it is not so great when I log into Facebook while
dining out, but hey, it is fun. So now to the funny part…
I was looking at Apps that are
supposedly hot items. For those of you who are not MACites, you
probably are aware of what they are because all of the other
phones now have Apps too. There are more Apps out there that one
can load on their phones then imaginable. However, this one is
really cool for our travel business.
Gone are the days of collecting
business cards and then finally getting around to loading them
into your address book on your computer. I have stacks of these
that never make it to the computer, but instead I get frustrated
that they are still sitting on my desk and looking dusty so I
often toss them in exasperation. I know, this is not a Big Girl
thing to do but every once in a while it feels good to just toss
or shred. I know when I do it that I will suffer later when I
try frantically to find that person’s contact information that I
need. So now, we have an alternative called BUMP.
I have copied some of the
information from the their site and from other searches, so that
I would not share bad information about the product. I think
this is really cool. This is how I understand it to work.
You meet a prospective client or
perhaps you meet a vendor somewhere. You are sure there is
synergy there and you want to be able to “hook up” with them at
some point. Both of you have to have Bump loaded on your phones.
Loading an app only takes a couple minutes so that is easy. Once
you both know you have it (I loaded it yesterday) you simply
have your phone in your hand and you BUMP fists like you are
giving a high-five but with your fists around your phones. Your
phones instantly absorb each other’s contact data and you are
done.
Sure, there is more to it than
just that. There is security issues, etc. that you will want to
review, so I have copied here some more information from the
BUMP website at
www.bumptechnologies.com. Apparently, it works for some
devices other then iPhones so I suspect we will see this grow.
I just thought this was really fun and different and wanted to
share it with our readers of HBTANews. I look forward to
BUMPING with you soon somewhere!
Q: How does BumpTM
work?
A: There are two parts to BumpTM:
the app running on your device and a smart matching algorithm
running on our servers in the cloud. The app on your phone uses
the phone's sensors to literally "feel" the bump, and it sends
that info up to the cloud. The matching algorithm listens to the
bumps from phones around the world and pairs up phones that felt
the same bump. Then we just route the contact information
between the two phones in each pair.
Q: No way. What if somebody else bumps at the same time?
A: Way. We use various techniques to limit the pool of potential
matches, including location information and characteristics of
the bump event. If you are bumping in a particularly dense area
(ex, at a conference), and we cannot resolve a unique match
after a single bump, we'll just ask you to bump again. Our CTO
has a PhD in Quantum Mechanics and can show the math behind
that, but we suggest downloading BumpTM
and trying it yourself!
Q: Is BumpTM
secure?
A: When we built BumpTM,
our number one priority was creating the best possible user
experience we could. Security of your personal information is a
huge part of that experience. First, all communications between
your phone and our servers are encrypted and sent using https -
the same encryption that is used for online banking. Second, the
nice thing about BumpTM
is that *you* are in control of deciding with whom you share
your information. You don't have to worry about anyone being
able to get at your information unless you physically bump your
phone with theirs. Finally, we will never share any of your
personal information with any third parties. Check out our
privacy policy for more details.
Q: What happens to my contact information?
A: When you bump, if we find a match with a phone that felt the
same bump, our servers ask each phone to send up the contact
information each user chose to share, but nothing more. If and
only if both users then confirm that the match is indeed correct
will the contact information be sent down to the other person.
Q: Will BumpTM
be free forever?
A: BumpTM
is most useable when everyone else has it. We want to get BumpTM
on to as many phones as possible so that no one ever has to
manually type in a phone number again. To that end, we plan to
offer the basic version of BumpTM
free of charge for the entire foreseeable future.
Q: Cool, but doesn't this only work between two iPhones?
A: No! BumpTM
currently supports iPhone, iPod touch, and Android. We are
working to bring BumpTM
to other platforms soon. Today, there are several other phones
that include the sensors that BumpTM
needs to feel bumps, but in the next few years, the vast
majority of new phones will have these sensors. We plan to offer
BumpTM on
all of them, and BumpTM
will work between any two of them.
|
Joanie Ogg CTC MCC
Joanie Ogg Marketing Group
Editor
Joanie Ogg is a thirty-five year
veteran of the travel industry and has been involved with the
independent contractor evolution since 1988. She is the principal of
Joanie Ogg Marketing Group, which specializes in consulting and speaking
on the topic of Home-Based Travel. She also provides marketing and sales
for wide variety of products under the umbrella HomeBasedTravelAgent.com.
A demonstrated industry leader, Joanie most recently served as the
President of the National Association of Commissioned Travel Agents (NACTA)
and TravelSellers. She and her husband Tom acquired NACTA in 1996 and
sold it to The American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) in 2000.
Joanie’s tenure in the travel industry includes owning and operating one
of the first successful host agency models. She has owned and operated
several storefront travel agencies (both commercial and leisure), as
well as a Hawaii wholesale tour company.
Her decades of success have garnered
her numerous accolades over the years. Her accomplishments have been
recognized by receipt of two Lifetime Achievement Awards from major
trade groups, being named as one of the “100 Most Powerful Women in
Travel” by Travel Agent magazine on several occasions, voted as “Travel
Agent of the Year” by the readers of Travel Trade magazine, and has been
recognized by many other industry organizations throughout her tenure in
the industry. In 2008 Joanie Ogg was inducted into the CLIA Hall of
Fame, an honor held by some of the most influential executives in the
travel industry.
Joanie is a Master Cruise Counselor (MCC)
and a Certified Travel Counselor (CTC). Joanie has co-authored two
popular travel industry books for cruise specialists and home-based
travel agents and has authored hundreds of travel trade articles. She
has inspired tens of thousands of travel agents attending her
presentations at trade events, cruise seminars, international trade
gatherings and numerous local educational venues throughout the United
States. With a time-honored background and forward-looking vision, she
is often featured as a speaker at many of the travel industry’s major
conferences and events. Joanie’s speaking talents are widely sought as a
travel industry emcee by the most recognized travel organizations. She
has emceed such events as Cruise-A-Thons, ASTA’s CruiseFest, The Trade
Show, The Travel Institute Forum and all of NACTA’s National and
International Conferences.
|
|
|
|
